SES-owned satellite AMC-9, which suffered a “major anomaly” on Saturday morning is probably lost, according to sources at SES. While not yet confirmed as being totally lost, the short-term prognosis does not look good. A previous ‘Zombie’ satellite was Galaxy-15 which went adrift back in April 2010, and slowly started drifting into the orbital space […]
SES has a significant problem with its AMC-9 satellite which serves the US and Mexico and the Caribbean. The craft was launched in June 2003. SES says it is working closely with the manufacturer (Alcatel/Thales) to establish the cause of the anomaly and is “evaluating all satellite recovery options”. The full impact of the anomaly […]
SpaceX had planned to launch June 19th BulgariaSat-1 aboard a refurbished, ‘flight-proven’ 1st stage Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. However, a faulty valve in the rocket has had to be swapped out and the re-scheduled launch is likely to be June 23rd or 24th. The rocket’s pre-used 1st stage was flown back on […]
Troubled speciality satellite operator Avanti Communications has agreed a new $100 million (€89.5m) refinancing package. The borrowing replaces an existing $50 million of debt and sees the London-based operator lower its debt interest costs from an average of 10 per cent to 7.5 per cent. The new borrowing also pushes back the payment schedule to […]
Hot on the heels of its German counterpart’s success, Sky Italia has secured exclusive live rights to all UEFA Champions League and Europa League matches from the 2018/19 season through to 2020/21, significantly strengthening Sky’s position as the leading sports content provider in Italy. The rights had previously been held by Mediaset. Sky has acquired […]
UK pay-TV platforms Sky and Virgin Media have formed a strategic partnership that they say will enable businesses both big and small to benefit further from advanced TV advertising across both Virgin TV and Sky platforms. Advertisers will be able to target a potential audience over time of more than 30 million viewers, putting it […]
Italian DTH platform Tivùsat has surpassed 3 million active smart cards, representing over 9 per cent of Italian households. Since launching on July 31st 2009, the satellite-based platform has seen constant growth, especially after the completion of the analogue switch-off in Italy. The positive trend has continued in the first months of 2017. Tivùsat distributes […]
TiVo has published the 17th edition of its quarterly video trends report (previously the Digitalsmiths Quarterly Video Trends Report), including insights on pay-TV vs OTT user experiences, live sporting event viewing via social media, ideal price per channel for à la carte cable/satellite offerings, and more. Based on a survey of more than 3,000 consumers, […]
On September 1st 2016, a catastrophic explosion at Cape Canaveral’s Launch Pad 40 destroyed a SpaceX rocket and its precious cargo, a satellite being prepared for launch and owned by Spacecom of Israel. The fire and explosions pretty much destroyed the Launch Pad, and the loss meant that SpaceX could only use one of the […]
Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS), majority owned by private equity investment company Permira since 2010, has been refinanced by Permira. ABS had been up for sale since May last year. Permira acquired ABS in 2010, paying about $242 million for the Hong Kong-based (but Bermuda headquartered) satellite operator. Its satellite operational base is at Subic Bay […]